Hardly has the Queen Swan fled when her companions enter--a score of maidens in similar attire, scarcely less fair than their leader. As is their nightly practice, they dance in the moonlit glade, but have scarce begun when the Prince’s friend, followed by the huntsmen and attendants, break in upon these mystic revels. The swan-maidens, frightened, fly to one another for mutual protection, while the intruders, scarce knowing what to make of such unexpected objects of the chase, finger their weapons hesitatingly. Some, indeed, are fitting bolts to the cross-bows, but the hasty return of the Prince, who bids them stay their hands, prevents the wanton slaughter. Even as he gives his orders, two more swan-maidens join their frightened sisters, and with them comes the Queen Swan herself, who has sped the Prince from her side to avert the threatened disaster, and now comes herself to lead the petition for mercy which the hapless maidens pleadingly urge. The Prince needs little persuasion to grant the boon, and the swan-maidens resume their dancing before the enraptured eyes of the Prince and his friend. In the midst of her companions the Queen Swan, unchallenged in the supremacy of her charms, completes the fascination she has already exercised upon the too susceptible Prince. With infatuated gaze he hangs upon her every movement, drinking in her beauty, the grace of her dancing, the elegance of her form. Every moment that she pauses, while her companions continue the movement of the dance, he woos her passionately, urging his suit with an eagerness that increases as the reluctance which she strives to maintain appears to give way. The throbbing valse rhythm of the music hurries the young man’s hectic passion to a climax. Inspired by the ardour which the Prince’s impetuous wooing kindles in her, the Queen of the Swan-maidens surpasses herself in a dance which turns passion into ecstasy. She abandons herself to her lover’s arms. But at this fateful moment the dreaded hour has struck. The swan-maidens are seized with nervous apprehension. They beckon their Queen, and as they see her recalled to her surroundings, hurry timidly away. The huntsmen watch them go, too much surprised by this sudden flight to attempt to intercept it. Not so the Prince. As the Queen Swan strives to release herself from his embrace, he seeks to detain her. Reluctant to go, yet fearful to stay, she persists in the effort to disengage herself. Ardently the Prince implores her to remain, but just as he would enforce the entreaty by strength she slips from his grasp and gains the bank that leads into the wood. Her lover would dash forward and restrain her, but she motions him back, waves a tender farewell, and is gone from his sight.